By Jacob Nelson
Hailing Xiang’s interest in advertising stems from her desire to help her family. When her father’s company developed a new product, it presented Xiang with a problem: How do you advertise it?
That question brought the China-native and University of Alabama graduate to the MSLCE program, where she’s hoping to gain the skills she needs to become an entrepreneur in the creative industries.
“I want to be a business leader,” Xiang said during a recent interview. “To advance a company, I need to hone my marketing communication and leadership skills.”
The stakes are high for Xiang — her father wants her to take over the family company after she graduates. It’s for this reason that Xiang is hoping to gain an understanding of marketing and advertising to audiences so that she can guide the family business toward continued success. As an MSLCE student, Xiang hopes to intern at some large advertising and marketing firms in order to learn from them.
“I need to go to bigger advertising companies to learn how to market,” she said, “to get new ideas for the future.”